A Republican leader denied a double standard in pushing Senator Larry Craig to resign after a sex sting guilty plea, while remaining silent over Senator David Vitter's involvement with an escort service.
A senior Democrat said a double standard by Republican leaders is exactly what occurred.
Craig of Idaho pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in a men's restroom and announced on Saturday he will leave the Senate at the end of the month. He was caught in an undercover police vice operation at the Minneapolis-St Paul airport in June and, despite his guilty plea, now insists he did nothing wrong.
Senator John Ensign, the Senate Republican campaign chairman, said Craig "admitted guilt. That is a big difference between being accused of something and actually admitting guilt."
"David Vitter never did that. Larry Craig did," continued Ensign on ABC television's This Week program.
Senator Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, expressed a contrary view on Fox News Sunday.
"One, I say there's a double standard," said Leahy, a Democrat. "Secondly, I don't think they'll ask him [Vitter] to resign because, of course, he'd be replaced by a Democrat. It's easier to ask Larry Craig to resign because he'd be replaced by a Republican."
Idaho has a Republican governor who will appoint a successor to Craig. Louisiana's governor is a Democrat.
Vitter of Louisiana has not been charged with a crime, although he acknowledged his Washington telephone number was among those called several years ago by an escort service.
Prosecutors say the escort service was a prostitution ring and have accused the woman who headed it of racketeering.
Craig's conduct was "embarrassing not only to himself and his family but to the United States Senate," Ensign said. Before Craig's announcement, Ensign had strongly suggested that he resign.
Another Republican, Senator Arlen Specter, said on Fox News Sunday that Craig should seek to vindicate himself.
"I'd like to see Larry Craig seek to withdraw the guilty plea, and fight the case," said Specter, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee. "I'd like to see him fight the case because I think he could be vindicated."
Regardless of any legal developments in Craig's case, Republicans clearly would frown on Craig changing his mind about quitting the Senate on Sept. 30 -- and leaving the party with a festering corruption issue.
Ed Gillespie, US President George W. Bush's counselor and a former chairman of the Republican Party, acknowledged that ethical scandals have hurt the party.
He predicted that by next year, the party "will not have candidates who have any kind of ethical considerations that will be a concern to the voters."
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion